UNXL: Cowen Impressed with Tour of Lufkin Manufacturing Line

By Tiernan Ray

Cowen & Co.’s Robert Stone today reiterated an Outperform rating and a $46 price target, on shares of UniPixel (UNXL), the maker of touch sensors for touch-based computer displays, after taking a tour of the company’s manufacturing line in Lufkin, Texas, which reassured him manufacturing of UniPixel’s “mesh” technology is on track.

The new plate making tool is 4x higher resolution, capable of 2 micron line widths, which should increase flexibility in designing grid patterns and other sensor features (bezel circuits, ground pads). Another inspection machine checks the plate before it is mounted to the printer drum. UNXL has developed special tooling for aligning and loading the plates, which should make the process highly repeatable and much less dependent on the skill of the operator.

Stone notes progress both at Lufkin and at the Rochester, New York facility where partner Eastman Kodak (EKDKQ) will produce some UniPixel product:

Lufkin has been making long runs (in addition to prototypes and samples) to gauge the impact of various parameters. The goal is to determine the widest possible window, so all sensors can be plated with one recipe. Rochester should be production ready by mid-November (Kodak Capacity Build Appears on Track). Lufkin should begin sooner, once the roll-to-roll tester is in (due in October) and qualification is complete. A manual fixture (with the same head design) arrived the day of our visit, and will allow testing using the same protocol to begin gathering data. Once mounted, a 100% electrical test takes only seconds.

Stone thinks that with 20 “engagements” currently underway for the company’s technology, some new design wins may emerge, without saying what the time frame is: “UNXL may be swapped into some existing designs whenever volume is available, without impacting customer product launch windows; UNXL has qualified two downstream assembly partners and is in talks with four more.”

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There are 9 comments

SEPTEMBER 3, 2013 7:08 P.M.

Chris wrote:

Thanks for the update Cowen / Mr. Ray.

Just a heads-up, the two quotes are the same. Should one of them be different?

Thanks,
Chris

SEPTEMBER 3, 2013 7:10 P.M.

Tiernan Ray wrote:

Chris: Indeed, they should be different quotes. My apologies for the error. Thank you for pointing that out.

SEPTEMBER 3, 2013 9:55 P.M.

ivan wrote:

will Kodak come up with next symbol to trade or stay the same ???

SEPTEMBER 4, 2013 9:27 A.M.

Symbol wrote:

There will be a new symbol. The one being used yesterday was EKDKQ and it will definitely not be that one for the new symbol.

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013 1:25 A.M.

Snowblower wrote:

thank you very much for making the trip and reporting back to us. Your report should help assist many others with respect to holding onto existing unxl or acquiring more. I intend to travel there in a couple of weeks and will report back on same. Hi Chris.

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013 12:53 P.M.

tony wrote:

How long take time to start treading in Kodak stok

SEPTEMBER 6, 2013 5:46 P.M.

Scott wrote:

This article is written and pumps up the price but its stone silent when the insiders sold like crazy this week. Is this another typical Wall Street cover? Just interesting how there is not attention to the HUGE insider sales.....

SEPTEMBER 18, 2013 5:09 P.M.

Paul wrote:

Hope UNXL lives up to all its potential, it looks good, a little risky, especially running up as high as it did and then falling with such a thud. I'm going to buy some for future speculative growth. .

NOVEMBER 12, 2013 11:21 A.M.

Ronald O. Thompson wrote:

I have a question about the Lufkin, Tx. plant. Are the production lines shown in the two photo's Uni-Pixel owned or are they under contract from Cyber Shields of Lufkin Tx.? Sorry to bother you with such a trivial inquiry. Thanks for your time.

About Tech Trader Daily

Tech Trader Daily is a blog on technology investing written by Barron’s veteran Tiernan Ray. The blog provides news, analysis and original reporting on events important to investors in software, hardware, the Internet, telecommunications and related fields. Comments and tips can be sent to: techtraderdaily@barrons.com.